Nov 17, 2023     Tail Wheel - (2 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Today I removed the tail wheel from the Volksplane 2 that I bought in Canada and installed it on my Volksplane 1. I was very pleased that the parts were an exact match.

  Apr 18, 2021     A few nuts and bolts - (3 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Sometimes a few little things move the project forward. Today I placed nuts on the bolts holding Service Bulletin #2 in place. 8 nuts and washers doesn't seem like a lot but getting them in right took some time. Next I fabricated the fuel tank deck (F-17). I glued the 1/4 round to the aft end of it before placing it into position. Because I cut the 1/4 inch slots for the wing struts last week, I decided to measure the wing ribs to see if the slots lined up... they do... so another piece of gratification that I measured and placed cuts and materials correctly.

  Apr 10, 2021     Landing Gear fitting       Category: Landing Gear

Today I decided to see if everything fits.. the holes in the second hand landing gear cross piece to the holes I drilled in the fuselage and the holes in all the connecting parts. "YES!" everything fit. However, (why is there always a "however"?) The after construction notes on the last page of the plans say to use a 2"x2" 1/8 inch aluminum angle iron in place of the flat piece to more evenly distribute the landing load. Here is the however, I had not placed the 1/4 inch spar reinforcing doubler on the fuselage. I had it CNC cut with the other 1/4 inch ply. So I had to take it all apart to cut a notch out of the angle iron and reassemble.

  Mar 28, 2021     life's lessons - (10 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Many times "life's lessons" are costs in: time; experience; mistakes; blood; money; embarrassment; and other costs too numerous to describe in one entry. Today's life lesson was a small amount of money ($10.57) and a great deal of time. Today's life lesson begins with Service Bulletin #2 on page #1. This simple precautionary addition of a couple of about 3/32nds of an inch of angled 4130 steel. Now we go to page #70 where 1/8th of an inch of 2" x 2" alum angle "iron" are added. No big deal right? But adding thicknesses of material changes the length of the bolts needed. AN5-30a bolts are called for so I figured: hell I'll be safe and order AN5-40a's to give myself extra room. This gives me an extra inch to tighten the bolt and I'll just cut off the rest. Experienced builders will at this point say: "oops, he doesn't know about the short length of the threaded area." Yup. Too short So fortunately there are AN5- 32 and AN5-33 bolts in the parts list. So I place those in the holes. Still too short - I think - I want the min of 3 threads showing after tightening them in place. From the looks of it I could fit AN5-33's in place but no threads - so for about another $10 to AC Spruce I will order AN5-35's

  Jan 03, 2021     Service Bulletin 2 (problem solved)       Category: Landing Gear

Yesterday I finally drilled the 1/4" holes in the landing gear mounts for service bulleting 2. This was particularly difficult because of the 4" space needing to get the drill into. I used stubby hex drill bits on 90 degree adapters. Although the pictures are grainy it shows the successful bolts through the landing gear mounts. The blue tape is because I still need to place 1/4 inch ply on the mounts. Fortunately I did not glue them in place before the service bulletin. Of course, (by increasing the amount of metal involved) the bolts are now too short for mounting the rest of the landing gear so I need to order longer bolts.

  Nov 29, 2020     VP Service Bulletin #2       Category: Landing Gear

Today I worked on the VP Service Bulletin #2. After 3 hours I drilled 8 holes! I have posted a question to the VP Builder's site online. Maybe next week I will drill the remaining holes. The issue is to get all the holes lined up and to get the Service Bulletin pieces lined up.

Hello everyone,
You have all probably succeeded in this (probably obvious) procedure that has me temporarily baffled. If I had looked ahead I probably would have drilled the 1/4 inch holes before assembly but now after installation I am at a quandary. How do I get a drill bit in the small spaces to drill the 1/4" holes described in VP Service Bulletin #2? the space between the gear braces is only about 4" and the space between the fwd cockpit wall is only about 3". Fortunately, I have not installed the 1/4 inch thick ply to the bottom of the braces yet. Please forgive the dark photo.

12 APR 2021 - I realize I never answered my question... I purchased a set of stubby bits and 90 degree offset attachment for my drill. It barely fit but it did fit.

The answer is probably obvious to those of you that have done it - but for now I am wondering if I need to take a 1/4" bit and cut it down so my 90 degree drill bit attachment will fit in a 4" space.

  Dec 22, 2019     Free Gear       Category: Landing Gear

After some online discussions with Mr Eddie Clark of Tripple Tree Aerodrome in South Carolina, he brought me the aluminum landing gear piece that a friend of his salvaged from a VP1 near the Aerodrome. He and his wife were visiting family in Massachusetts for the holidays and he brought it to me for free. How could I say no?